


A New Shape

by grainjew



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: (cosette and sophie have one-line cameos also), Friendship, Gen, Houen-chichou | Hoenn, Kalos-chihou | Kalos, Phone Calls & Telephones, ash is SO bad at staying in touch, save his friends, the fool doesnt even have a phone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 07:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19718818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: As the curtains rise on Ash's journey in Kalos, Max is beginning his own pokemon journey back home in Hoenn.He's also trying to call Ash to tell him the news, but that's a much more difficult venture.(Ash, meanwhile, has jet lag.)





	A New Shape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).



> it only makes sense for max to have been seven during hoenn anime, and therefore for him to be journeying in hoenn while ash is in kalos -- there's just too much connection between the two gens to do anything else
> 
> max is such a sweetheart really

“Ash!” Ash opened his eyes blearily to see Cosette poking her head into the mostly-intact doorway of his guestroom. 

He rubbed a hand over his face and mustered a “Huh?”

“There’s someone on the phone for you,” said Cosette. “Also, come down for breakfast, will you? The Professor sent me.”

“Yeah, alright,” said Ash. He levered himself out of bed and turned to Pikachu. “No respect for jetlag, huh.”

“Piika,” yawned Pikachu, basically proving Ash’s point. “Pikachu?”

“Oh, right, the call!” said Ash, and scrambled the rest of the way out of bed. He threw day clothes on and sort of haphazardly dashed down what remained of the stairs with Pikachu holding his cap on his shoulder. 

A quick “Where’s the videophone?” tossed over his shoulder had Sophie pointing him down the hall, and he skidded to a stop in front of the machine, congratulating himself on not having run into a single thing on the way. The screen was on, and frowning at him from the other side was Max, framed on either side by the lobby of a sleepy pokemon center Ash vaguely recognized.

“Finally!” said Max, as Ash blinked at him. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for _days!_ Do you know how _hard_ you are to find?”

“Um,” said Ash. “Sorry?”

“Rayquaza-who-guards-the- _skies,_ ” said Max, with an exasperation Ash mostly associated with him being annoyed at his sister. He rolled his eyes. "See,” he added, and Ash braced himself, “May told me to call Dawn who gave me Cilan's number but he said you were back in Kanto so I called Professor Oak and we had a super cool talk about regional variance — did you know he has a cousin? — but then he said you'd already left for Kalos so I called _all the Lumiose City pokecenters_ but you weren't in any of them and nobody had heard of you except this one guy said you'd been seen jumping off some tower? And eventually I figured out you might have met Professor Sycamore ‘cause Professor Oak had mentioned him and you run into important people all the time so I called Professor Oak back and got the number of his lab and—”

“Okay, okay!” said Ash, louder than he meant to. He waved his hands around a little until Pikachu made an annoyed noise at him. “Try breathing?”

Max made a face at him. “You’re the worst. Why are you in Kalos anyways?”

“Sounded fun?” said Ash. “It’s been _awesome_ so far!”

Max just looked at him. “Even the part where you jumped off a tower? …No, you know what, I’m not going to ask.”

“Yeah, even that! See—” Ash’s eyes widened. “Oh, Max, you’ve gotta tell May—”

“Tell her yourself,” interrupted Max.

Ash made a face. “I dunno where she is! We’re both travelling, you know!”

“Unlike you,” said Max tartly, “she has a phone. And I’m also travelling?”

“Anyways,” Ash brushed the concern to the side with a hand and heard Max sigh. “You gotta tell her and Blaziken! I saw a mega-blaziken today, it was _awesome,_ it totally saved mine and Pikachu’s life!"

"Pika pika!"

Max looked torn between five different questions. After a moment he said, " _Mega_ -blaziken?"

"Yeah!" Ash gestured. "It's this thing Professor Sycamore is researching, where a pokemon can evolve _again_ and then come back to normal after!" Max's eyes widened, and Ash grinned. "He's got a garchomp who can do it also, although I haven't seen mega-garchomp yet. And there's this super awesome—" Ash paused as a thought hit him. “Wait, you said you’re also travelling?”

“Aaaaash!” Max switched in an instant from utterly fascinated to a totally displeased face, the same one he’d make when they were travelling. Ash thought he saw him stomp his foot. “I called you for a _reason,_ you know!”

"Oh," said Ash. Pikachu nudged him. "Sorry?"

"What I _wanted_ to say," said Max, "is that I started my pokemon journey last week."

Ash blinked, and felt his cheeks heat in some mess of embarrassment and flattery. Max thought highly enough of him to try getting ahold of him for _days_ just to tell him the news, and Ash didn't even let him get a word in.

Pikachu handed back his hat, belatedly, and Ash secured it on his head without really thinking about it.

Then he said, “Whoa, already?” and shared a look with Pikachu. “Time sure flies!”

“For _you,_ maybe,” said Max. “Travelling around and going on adventures and challenging Leagues and stuff. I had to go to _school._ ”

Ash considered the fact that maybe he should have been calling Max more often, because Max had grown again, and he had a new pair of glasses and a new shape to his face. “I thought you liked school?”

“I _do,_ ” said Max, a little plaintively. “But it’s so much less interesting than travelling! And everyone just called me a teacher's pet even more than before.”

Ash remembered the first time he’d called Max, or Max had called him. It was when Ash had been saying goodbye to his pokemon before leaving for Sinnoh, Sceptile shoving its face into his neck and Swellow nibbling at his hair and Pikachu handing out reassurances, and Tracey came shouting that Max was on the videophone for him. Half his team had followed him back inside, of course, so he was surrounded by a whole array of pokemon when Max laid reddish, puffy eyes on him and told Ash that nobody at school believed he was telling the truth when he told stories about their journey or said his friend had beat the Battle Frontier.

Ash had wanted to hug him and take him aside while Brock cooked dinner to show him — with Swellow’s delighted assistance — the practical specifics of how a trainer helped their bird pokemon preen. Max would be delighted, tell Ash all sorts of cool facts while he learned how to tell all the wingfeathers were in alignment. But they couldn’t do that sort of thing anymore, and Ash had thought bringing up how they used to would make Max even sadder, so he kept his mouth shut and wondered how many times he would leave someone behind.

Max pouted and huffed a breath. "And I can't even watch Dad's gym battles."

Ash made a sympathetic noise and tried to figure out what to say— Max had always been too logical to be easily comforted. It took him a moment, but he settled on a small grin. "'Least you're done with it now, though! You're on your journey and everything!"

Max’s eyes lit back up, and Ash congratulated himself. "Yeah! Guess you're right."

 _You don't have to sound so surprised_. 

Pikachu sent him a dubious look, like it could hear his thoughts. Ash sent it a dubious look right back.

"So, who'd you end up picking for your starter?" asked Ash, once he was pretty sure Pikachu was done mocking him.

Max ducked his head, but Ash thought he caught a hint of a sheepish, pleased smile. "Um, none of them..." He brought a hand up behind his head, in an almost embarrassed gesture. "Ralts came and found me, see! So it's the two of us."

“The ralts you saved back then?”

Pikachu let itself fall backwards a little so it was hanging off Ash’s shoulder instead of standing on it, which meant it was interested.

“Yeah!” said Max, as happy as Ash had ever seen him.

“That’s awesome!” said Ash. Max had cried for days after leaving Ralts the first time, long enough and hard enough that Brock suggested they go back and catch it for him. But Max had said no, because they had a promise. “You two made such a great team!”

“Thanks…” said Max, and blushed a little. “We’ll see how great when we get finally get to Rustboro and challenge Roxanne.”

“Ooh, are you entering the League, then?”

“Well—” The pokecenter’s tri-tone chime sounded in the background, and Max jumped up. “That’s Ralts! I'll be right back!"

He rushed off before Ash could answer, and Ash caught himself smiling fondly like he'd seen Brock looking at him sometimes, in Hoenn and in Sinnoh. Max made animated gestures, grabbed a pokeball from Nurse Joy, and darted back to the videophone, and Ash said to Pikachu, "He grew up."

"Chu, chu pikachu," said Pikachu, smiling. Ash scratched absently at its neck. "Chaaa…"

"Yeah," said Ash, and then Max was skidding back up to the screen and Ralts was materializing in a burst of light on his shoulder.

"Ralts…" it said, and brought a hand to its mouth. Max was smiling like he'd just been handed the moon.

They all looked at each other for a moment, Ralts with one of its tiny hands in Max's hair, and then Ash smiled back and said, "It's good to see you again, Ralts."

"Pika!" said Pikachu, in emphatic agreement.

Ralts ducked its head and covered its face.

Max said, "Ralts says that it's good to see you two also." And then he blushed crimson.

"Whoa, you guys are awesome!" said Ash. "It took me and Pikachu _forever_ to get close enough to talk like that!"

"Pi pika pikapi," added Pikachu, and then rubbed a cheek against his neck.

Max waved his hands around. "Ralts has been working really hard on its telepathy, see! It only really works on me yet, but it means we can talk for real!"

"Ralts!" chirped Ralts happily, and went back to holding onto Max's hair.

"I'm jealous," declared Ash. 

Pikachu poked him right next to the jugular vein like _you idiot._

Ash reconsidered. 

He tilted his head to brush it up against Pikachu's, because, fine, he had it pretty good too. He had it better than anyone, really, telepathy or no telepathy. His partner was worth the world and more, and Ash didn't know what they'd do apart. Didn’t know what he’d do without Pikachu.

"Pika, pikachu pikapi pika, chu chu," said Pikachu back, which Ash figured meant something like _Yeah, I thought so._

Max laughed.

"What?" said Ash.

"Just—" said Max. "I missed you, is all." Ralts leaned into the side of his head. "I haven't found anyone to travel with yet or anything… It's nice, just me and Ralts, but it's not the same." He made a face. "I'd even take May."

Ash laughed, shortly. Then he said, “Wait, why _isn’t_ she travelling with you?”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder?” tried Max. Ralts must have said something to him, because he glanced at it and added. “We decided we wouldn’t. Cause of her being busy and me wanting to see what Hoenn looked like without having to deal with an older sister. She decided to drop in on me unexpectedly and challenge me to battles, I think, like some sort of rival, ‘specially if I did contests. Personally I think I want a rival that’s _not_ my older sister but I can’t _stop_ her so whatever.”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Ash, as equanimously as he could. He’d learned a long time ago that trying to figure out siblings, especially ones like Max and May, was even dumber than most of his ideas. The ones that didn’t work. “I thought you were set on challenging the League, though?”

"I thought so too,” said Max, scowling a little. “But May always looks like she's having so much fun doing contests, so now I'm not sure if I want to fight gyms like you, or do contests like May. Or even neither one, like Brock."

Ralts murmured something. Max reached up and adjusted the way the tail of its skirt sat on his shoulder, gentle.

“Try both,” suggested Ash. "I had a friend in Sinnoh who made it to the Grand Festival _and_ to the League! He had lots of fun even if he didn’t win either one.” He paused. “Placed in the top four of the Grand Festival though, which was pretty awesome.”

“That _is_ awesome,” agreed Max.

“Ralts!” agreed Ralts.

“Then it’s settled!” said Max, after a surprisingly short time stopping to think. “We’re doing both!” He grinned at Ash, and then frowned. “I’ll have to pick up a contest pass in the next town over… If we want to get there at any reasonable hour we’ll have to leave tomorrow ‘cause I don’t like travelling at night… Hm.”

Ash said, “So _that’s_ why you called me at six in the morning.”

“Time zones,” said Max.

“Time zones,” agreed Ash. “No respect for jet lag.”

Pikachu snorted, and buried its face in Ash’s neck to laugh.

“Your fault for going to Kalos,” pointed out Max. He made a face. “So _far._ ”

And then he burst out laughing, and Ash was laughing too, and Pikachu had never stopped, and Ralts had put its hands over its mouth to chuckle quietly, and pure joy was arcing its searing way from behind Ash’s ribcage, up and up until Prism Tower was the size of a twig and the whole world spread below him.

He took a deep breath and said, mundanely, “We should call more often.”

“Get a phone,” said Max, still giggling. A pause. He caught his breath. “Nah, I know you won’t. Just call the Rustboro pokecenter we stayed at in a week if you remember.”

“I will,” Ash said, and swore to himself that he _would_ remember this time. Max had grown up while he looked away, until he was on a journey with a partner he trusted, and that made Ash a pretty bad friend to have missed it, but he’d be a much worse one if he kept the pattern up. He waved. “Seeya then!”

“Bye!” said Max.

Ash hung up, and went to breakfast.

**Author's Note:**

> ralts episode made me cry so i had to address it. 
> 
> max doesnt make it past even the quarterfinals in the grand festival or the league but he has a great time and nearly beats may on the contest floor so theyre both very proud of him! and then they watch the kalos league together and lose their shit


End file.
